1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a total history management system and method using a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and a barcode, which may efficiently manage individual products using a barcode and an RFID tag that may provide environmental information for management of the individual products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, foreign agricultural products or livestock products which may be harmful to humans have been imported and distributed in great quantities. Accordingly, there is an increasing demand for food safety for consumers in the general public. In addition, a generic technology has been demanded for preventing loss of business through product quality management and minimizing loss of a social cost for the general public, resulting from deterioration of products. The foregoing issues may be resolved by optimizing a process for environmental data management of products in semiconductor industries, medical medicine industries, food industries, and the like in which maintaining constant temperature and humidity is important. In this regard, a technology for verifying product information using a barcode, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, and the like, and managing a total history from production to distribution and consumption has been developed. The barcode was invented to increase efficiency of product management in supermarkets. The invention of the barcode enables an amount of time spent waiting at a check-out counter to be reduced and enables automatic updating of stock records simultaneously with a product being sold. Accordingly, a scheme of tracing and managing stocks in a sales business has been wholly changed. Prior to the introduction of the barcode, distributors experienced difficulty in verifying a number of sold products, and a number of products to be produced or stored. However, such issues have been resolved through use of the barcode. A barcode may be configured by combining letters or numbers, using black and white symbols that are provided in a shape of a bar. A general barcode may have a capacity in the range of only tens of words, for example, 1 to 100 bytes. Accordingly, the barcode may store only a relatively small quantity of information, for example, a country of origin, a manufacturer, a product item, and the like. That is, the barcode may not store a variety of information, in addition to basic information of a product. In addition, dissimilar to RFID technology, the barcode may have a constraint in that barcodes are to be scanned individually by performing the scanning within a relatively short distance to secure a contact or a visibility. However, since a cost of a barcode may be extremely cheap, barcodes may be attached to each individual product. Accordingly, barcodes may be used to indicate a type of a product using a universal product code (UPS) or may be used for a point of sales system (POS) in a supermarket.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system for managing product warehousing, shipping, and stocks according to a conventional art.
That is, FIG. 1 illustrates an example of managing warehousing, shipping, and stocks using a barcode. When a warehousing order of complete products is received, a barcode printed using a barcode printer may be attached to every individual product to manage the warehoused complete products. In a warehouse, stocks may be verified by recognizing the barcode using a handheld scanner, and corresponding information may be provided to a computing system. When a shipping order is received for the products, every individual product to be shipped may be recognized using the handheld scanner and information about shipping details may be transferred to the computing system. In this instance, due to an extremely cheap cost, a barcode may be attached to every individual product to manage warehousing, shipping, stocks, and product information. However, the use of the barcode may have constraints on a distance for recognition, recognition of a plurality of products, provision of data about environmental information, for example, temperature, and humidity, and the like, during history management. An RFID tag may refer to a technology for storing information about a product or an object in an electrical tag, and recognizing the stored information using a radio wave. A barcode may be used read information by contacting a reader to every product, whereas the RFID tag may be recognized over a relatively long distance when compared to the barcode, and may recognize information of multiple products simultaneously since the RFID tag may transmit and receive signals wirelessly. Accordingly, the RFID tag may have advantages of a high recognition rate, a connection to other communication networks, and the like. In addition, since the RFID tag may have a capacity of up to tens of kilobytes (Kbyte), the RFID tag may contain basic information of a product, and a variety of information of the product, for example, a country of origin, a travel route, environmental information during a distribution, such as temperature, humidity, and the like, a current state, a purchase history, and the like. Accordingly, the RFID technology is emerging as a new solution for in and out control, logistics, history management, and the like, in lieu of the conventional barcode.
FIG. 2 is a diagram to describe a history management method using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology according to a conventional art.
That is, FIG. 2 illustrates an example of product history management using an RFID tag. In a producing area, an RFID tag may be attached to agricultural products, livestock products, and the like. Generally, since a sensor tag for collecting environmental information may be relatively expensive, when compared to a barcode, tagging may be performed in pallet units, except for expensive individual products. A tag attached to a transport vehicle may be connected to a global positioning system (GPS) to provide positional information, and to sense and provide environmental information, for example, temperature and humidity of the vehicle, periodically. In a warehouse, product warehousing and shipping may be managed by reading the RFID tag, and a customer or a final wholesale dealer may verify information and history of a product by reviewing product information. When an RFID tag is used, environmental information may be monitored in real time and a plurality of products may be recognized simultaneously. In addition, since the RFID tag may provide a greater amount of information than a barcode, history management using the RFID tag may be relatively easy when compared to history management using the barcode. However, a spread of an RFID may be difficult due to a high cost of the RFID tag, and a high initial cost of establish an RFID system. Although the RFID technology is used in a greater number of various fields, a barcode system takes a great portion of a product recognition system. Accordingly, a technology on an RFID reader which may be used conjunctively with a barcode system is being developed.
As an example of the foregoing technology, a method of converting tag information to a barcode, and applying the barcode will be described with reference to FIG. 3.
Referring to FIG. 3, an RFID reader may receive tag information that is transmitted from an RFID tag. A processor may convert the received tag information to barcode information. An output device may output a barcode. In this instance, although an RFID system and a barcode system may be used conjunctively, a cost of applying an RFID tag for each individual product may increase.
With respect to tracing of a product history, the RFID technology has been developed to mange a history of an individual product. However, in a real application, a tag may be more expensive than a barcode being applied as a conventional recognition technology, and may be inefficient in an aspect of cost cutting in manpower, and the like, due to an issue of a recognition rate. Accordingly, the RFID technology may not be applied to an individual product. A barcode used for product recognition may simply provide limited information, for example, a price of the product, a date of manufacture, and the like, due to a limited capacity of the barcode.